The Pope Is Calling for Peace but What if Hamas Doesn’t Want Peace?

Ever since the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas brutally assaulted Israel and Israel launched retaliatory counterattacks on Hamas targets in Gaza, world political and religious leaders have been making impassioned pleas for peace and the return of the hostages that Hamas abducted from Israel.  These calls for peace are both necessary and appropriate to the protection of innocent lives.  But what if Hamas doesn’t want peace?

Since the Hamas assault upon Israel, Pope Francis I has been issuing frequent impassioned calls for peace. After his 22 October 2023 Angelus, the Pope said, “War, any war that there is in the world – I also think of tormented Ukraine – is a defeat. War is always a defeat; it is a destruction of human fraternity. Brothers, stop! Stop!” (See https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/angelus/2023/documents/20231022-angelus.html  ). 

 During his General Audience of 25 October 2023, the Pope said:

“The possible widening of the conflict is disturbing, while so many war fronts are already open in the world. May weapons fall silent! Let us heed the cry for peace of populations, of the people, of the children! Brothers and sisters, war does not solve any problem: it sows only death and destruction, foments hate and proliferates revenge. War cancels out the future. I urge believers to take just one side in this conflict: that of peace. But not with words — with prayer, with total dedication. (See https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/audiences/2023/documents/20231018-udienza-generale.html  ). 

On 27 October 2023, the Pope led worldwide prayer, penance and fasting for peace in the Middle East.  Appealing to the Mother of Our Savior, the Pope prayed:  "Mary, look at us! We stand here before you. You are our Mother, and you know our struggles and our hurts. Queen of Peace, you suffer with us and for us, as you see so many of your children suffering from the conflicts and wars that are tearing our world apart."  (See https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/prayers/documents/20231027-preghiera-pace.html  ).

As the leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis must be an advocate for peace.  Popes traditionally have been voices for peace.   Just days before Nazi Germany invaded Poland, Pope Pius XII pleaded for peace in a radio address, saying “"Nothing is lost by peace; everything may be lost by war." (See https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/fr/speeches/1939/documents/hf_p-xii_spe_19390824_ora-grave.html  ).   In 1963, Pope St. John XXIII devoted a lengthy encyclical Pacem in Terris to advocating for peace amongst nations and peoples.  In his encyclical, he wrote “The world will never be the dwelling place of peace, till peace has found a home in the heart of each and every man, till every man preserves in himself the order ordained by God to be preserved.” ( See https://www.vatican.va/content/john-xxiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_j-xxiii_enc_11041963_pacem.html  ). 

In addition to Pope Francis, many Catholic leaders across the world have been calling for peace.  “We need support, to condemn all forms of violence, to isolate the violent, and to work relentlessly for a cease-fire,” said Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem after Hamas’s attacks on Israel. “Because as long as weapons speak, it will not be possible to hear other voices.”  (See https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255660/catholic-patriarch-calls-day-of-prayer-and-fasting-for-peace-in-the-holy-land  ).  On 27 October 2023, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State said, "I join in the appeal that the Pope has made and repeated many times in this war, that is, that the reasons for peace may prevail over violence and war. More concretely, our appeal is for the release of hostages and then for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza."  (See https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2023-10/cardinal-parolin-offers-holy-see-mediation-in-gaza.html  )

American bishops have also called for peace.  “Let us work tirelessly to make peace with justice a reality in our hearts, our communities, and among all nations and peoples,” said Joseph Cardinal Tobin, Archbishop of Newark, NJ on 13 October 2023.  (See https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255703/us-bishops-urge-faithful-to-join-in-day-of-prayer-and-fasting-for-peace-in-holy-land  ).   “We must not grow weary of offering our prayers and support for peace and justice for all concerned. A lasting solution respecting the rights, needs, and aspirations of both Israelis and Palestinians remains essential to these ends,” said Bishop David J. Malloy of Rockford, chairman of the USCCB Committee on International Justice and Peace in a statement released 27 October 2023.  (See https://www.usccb.org/news/2023/statement-us-bishops-international-justice-and-peace-chairman-continued-violence-holy  )

These calls and prayers for peace are most needed right now as war rages between Hamas and Israel and threatens to widen across the Middle East.  On streets not only in the Middle East but also in the cities of Europe and America, pro-Palestine / pro-Hamas protestors have been shouting “Palestine will be free from the river to the sea.”  They have even been shouting this slogan on the campuses of American universities like Harvard, New York’s Cooper Union College, George Washington University, and Columbia University.  They are calling for a Palestine state that exists from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea…the area where the Jewish people historically called home in Biblical times and where they currently reside. 

When pro-Palestine / pro-Hamas protestors shout “Palestine will be free from the river to the sea,” they are calling for the end of Israel and the Jewish state.  At best, this means a 21st Century version of the 2nd Century A.D. Diaspora when the Romans forcibly dispersed the Jews across the Roman Empire following the unsuccessful Jewish Bar Kokhba Revolt of the 130s A.D.  At worst, it means genocide of the Jewish people in Israel, a Holocaust 2.0.  Given Hamas’s history of anti-Jewish atrocities culminating with the 7 October 2023 atrocities, Holocaust 2.0 appears to be the more preferred method for Hamas to free Palestine from the River to the Sea.

It is a grievous mistake to view Islam as a monolith, no different than it is a mistake in viewing Christianity or Judaism as singular uniform entities.  Islam has its divisions, most notably between the Sunni and Shi’a (Shiite) groups but even within these groups there are sub-groups and sub-groups of sub-groups.   

In the wake of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks on America, President George W. Bush and other American leaders went to great lengths to differentiate between militant Islamic extremists and peaceful Muslims.  Speaking at the Islamic Center in Washington DC on 17 September 2001, President Bush said, “The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That's not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don't represent peace. They represent evil and war.”  (See https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PPP-2001-book2/html/PPP-2001-book2-doc-pg1121.htm  ).

There are peaceful Muslims but there are also a great many virulent groups within Islam that can and have committed heinous atrocities in the name of Allah and Jihad and will continue to do so again and again and again.    “Most Muslims are not fundamentalists, and most fundamentalists are not terrorists, but most present-day terrorists are Muslims and proudly identify themselves as such,” wrote Middle East expert and Princeton University Professor Emeritus Bernard Lewis in his 2004 The Crisis of Islam (pg. 137).  Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, the Grand Ayatollah of Iran, the Taliban, ISIS, Al Qaeda, and the Haqqani Network in Pakistan all espouse a violent, murderous version of Islam. 

The problem with Islam is that there is ample support in the Koran for Muslim militants to justify their attacks upon civilians and non-Muslims.  In Surah 4:76, the Koran states, “Those who believe do battle for the cause of Allah; and those who disbelieve do battle for the cause of idols.  So fight the minions of the devil.  Lo! the devil strategy is weak.”  Surah 98:6 states, “Lo!  Those who disbelieve, among the people of the Scripture and the idolaters, will abide in fire of hell.  They are the worst of created beings.”  In Surah 5:33, the Koran states:

 “Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and spread mischief in the land is death, crucifixion, cutting off their hands and feet on opposite sides, or exile from the land. This penalty is a disgrace for them in this world, and they will suffer a tremendous punishment in the Hereafter.”  (There are numerous online versions of the Koran.  This verbiage is essentially the same in the several versions that I consulted). 

Hamas’s ideological principles and its objectives were clearly stated in their original charter adopted on 18 August 1988.  The Covenant (Charter) of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) is a rambling recitation of the terrorist group’s beliefs and core principles.  It begins with a vitriolic condemnation of Israel and the Jewish people:  “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it" (The Martyr, Imam Hassan al-Banna, of blessed memory).”

Repeatedly the Hamas Charter proclaimed its objective of waging Jihad to attain its goals and objectives.  As stated in Article 8, the slogan of the Islamic Resistance Movement is  “Allah is its target, the Prophet is its model, the Koran its constitution: Jihad is its path and death for the sake of Allah is the loftiest of its wishes.”  Article 15 of the Covenant stated: “In face of the Jews' usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised.” 

Hamas’s Charter expressly rejected negotiation as a means of solving its ongoing disputes with Israel and the Jewish people.  Article 13 of the Charter declared: “There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors.”  Article 31 declared,  “It is the duty of the followers of other religions to stop disputing the sovereignty of Islam in this region, because the day these followers should take over there will be nothing but carnage, displacement and terror.”

 (The August 1988 Charter is posted online by Yale Law School’s Avalon Project https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp  . See also the Wilson Center’s 20 October 2023 analysis of Hamas’s doctrine https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/doctrine-hamas  )

In 2017, Hamas amended their original charter, replacing Jewish terminology with Zionist terms, in a deliberate attempt to obfuscate their true intentions.  As the horrific events of 7 October 2023 indicate, this semantic sleight of hand in no way altered their hatred of Jews.  “In 2017, Hamas dressed up their terrorist objectives in more ambiguous, less violent terms,” wrote Mark A. Green, former U.S. Ambassador to Tanzania and current President and CEO of the Wilson Center on 24 October 2023.  “But in 2023, they made clear what they really stood for—in President Biden’s words, ‘the destruction of the State of Israel and the murder of Jewish people.’” (See https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/hamas-words-and-deeds#:~:text=In%20its%20original%201988%20charter,%2C%20religious%20or%20sectarian%20grounds.%E2%80%9D  )

To the terrorist groups like Hamas, Pope Francis’s calls for peace and the return of the Jewish hostages are meaningless because they view him as an infidel and an unbeliever.   Other non-Muslim religious and political leaders are similarly being ignored by Hamas when they call for peace.   

What if Hamas and others like them do not want a peaceful solution to the ongoing crisis in the Middle East?  There is ample evidence to believe that they do not want peace with Israel.  Then what?